BHASHA SAMACHAR December 2018

FICCI-INDIAN LANGUAGE INTERNET ALLIANCE NEWSLETTER An alliance to foster the growth of Indian Languages Technology Industry to enable access to ICT infrastructure in all Indian languages.

Welcome to the 4th edition of FICCI – Indian languages internet alliance (FICCI-ILIA) newsletter. You will find all the exciting news, views and events from the Indic language ecosystem captured in this space!

Where we stand now:

FICCI-ILIA is 253 254members strong now!

FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter ADDRESS BY MS. SARIKA GULYANI Director and Head-ICT, Digital Economy & FICCI-ILIA Division

As FICCI-ILIA completes a year, I would users in India, NLP will become key to like to take this opportunity to thank business success. you for your support and wholehearted contribution to make this journey an Natural Language Processing and exceptional one. The first year has been Understanding (NLP/NLU) technologies marked with fruitful collaborations with have moved beyond mere text translations various government departments and and are now able to perform voice and private organizations. I am happy that we speech synthesis as well as sentiment successfully launched the flagship event analysis. Major sectors, such as information of FICCI-ILIA “Bhashantara” which was and communication technology, widely attended by our members and the healthcare, banking and finance, education, Indic language community at large. automobile are adopting NLP to improve efficiency, gain insights and identify the 2019 is going to be an equally most pertinent information from large exciting year for FICCI-ILIA, given the databases. A recent report points out that advancement in AI and specifically in the NLP market is poised to grow at a Natural Language Processing (NLP) world CAGR of 16.1 % until 2021, which translates over. to a $16 billion market opportunity.1

India has also made major strides in In this edition we bring to you the language technology in the past few thoughts and views of various subject years. The government of India through matter experts and thought leaders about its many initiatives like Digital India, Make the growth curve of the Indian Language in India and mandating Indian phone technology market and the various manufacturers to support its numerous challenges it is poised to face. Taking a official languages has bolstered the effort cue from these insightful articles, we have towards a multilingual internet. This commenced our activities focusing on growth will be further supported by huge working with the Industry and government technological advancement in NLP and to nurture innovation in NLP, promote machine translation technologies. use and adoption of available tools by generating awareness amongst buyers and NLP in the past couple of decades has users and connecting organizations and revolutionized the world wide web into government bodies to explore business a more inclusive space as digital content growth. With a member base of 250+, in various languages has become widely FICCI-ILIA is poised to undertake exciting available on the Internet. However projects in all the important areas and form content available in Indian languages is further collaborative partnerships as we still lagging behind and with a massive enter 2019. influx of non-English first-time internet 1 https://www.analyticsinsight.net/how-natural- language-processing-nlp-is-a-blessing-for-healthcare- organisations/ accessed 11 January, 2018 FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter Opinion Articles2

UNLOCKING DIGITAL BHARAT: USHERING IN THE INDIC INTERNET ECOSYSTEM

By Dr. Subi Chaturvedi President – YES Global Institute, YES BANK & Former Member, UN-IGF, MAG Tweets @subichaturvedi

Today, with over 500 million internet taken early steps towards bringing high- users, India is the second largest online speed internet connectivity to over 700 market in the world, only behind China. villages. As India’s digital infrastructure Thanks to a strong technology industry challenges gradually get addressed, the base, rapid growth in availability of country’s ‘Digital India’ vision needs to affordable smartphones, cheap mobile be supported by a strong Indic Internet data plans, as well as a sound policy ecosystem. push by governments at all levels, India’s Shaping a digital society that integrates wireless telephony and broadband all social spheres, is crucial for India’s subscribers have touched ~1189 mn and inclusive development. Although English 463.66 mn[1], respectively. Government’s continues to have a high aspirational value BharatNet program that aims to connect 250,000 gram Panchayats (GPs) through a network of optical fiber, has nearly 2 The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in all the articles under this section solely belong to the touched the halfway mark. At the same authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy time, government’s DigiGaon scheme, has or position of FICCI-ILIA. FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter in India, only around 10 percent of Indians leading cab aggregators operating in India are estimated to speak the language. This - Uber and Ola, have taken the vernacular necessitates localization of the Internet route to further strengthen their position with vernacular languages to empower in the market with localized offerings, the country’s non-English-speaking vast making their platform available in multiple majority. Indian languages. Amazon Web Services - a subsidiary of Amazon.com, has launched language support for ‘Amazon Polly’, A FAST EVOLVING INDIC a machine learning service that turns INDUSTRY LANDSCAPE text to speech and supports both and Hindi. As year 2018 witnessed considerable momentum towards creation of a 5G Startups are stepping in ecosystem in the country, the field of With a surge in usage of smartphones, Indic Language Internet ecosystem has coupled with rapid growth in internet also seen itself take several large strides, penetration driven by telecom operators with both technology majors as well as offering cheap data across India, a new new-age startups gearing up to tap the breed of startups – the vernacular startups potential in this space: - are coming to the fore. Right from News Technology giants are leading the Publications (e.g. Dailyhunt), Localization way platforms (e.g. Process9), e-payments (e.g. Bijlipay), Language-as-a-Service (e.g. Global technology giants have announced Reverie), Regional Operating systems (e.g. major initiatives to bring Indian languages Indus OS), Text-to-speech (e.g. IndianTTS), to the forefront. Google, which already Networking platforms (e.g. ShareChat), supports 9 Indian Languages in ‘Google to Typing software (e.g Lipikaar) – these Search’, unveiled ‘Project Navlekha’ startups are building products in diverse this year, to bring India’s 135,000 Indic language publications online. Microsoft India, on the other hand, announced the availability of new phonetic keyboards in ten Indian languages to members of its Windows Insider Program.

World’s most popular messenger app – WhatsApp and its parent Facebook, already allow users in the country to change language, supporting 11 and 13 Indian languages respectively. Similarly, FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter converts text into data, and learning from the data patterns, not always resulting in contextual conversion. Adding to the problem is the fact that Indic languages are derived from Brahmic scripts, which aren’t easy for NLP to understand.

Monetizing vernacular content

Content monetization has been one of the foremost challenges among all. Despite the existence of a huge pool of local language users, with merely 1 per cent of online content (text) in Indic languages, advertisers haven’t shown the required willingness to explore this segment. On the other hand, with fewer revenue generation options, publishers think twice before creating Indic language online content. While emerging platforms such areas, drawing significant attention of as Google’s Navlekha provides Indian marque investors, raising millions of dollars language publishers with free web hosting, of funding. there is a need for more such platforms.

KEY CHALLENGES GOVERNMENT LEADING FROM India’s Indic language content ecosystem THE FRONT is still nascent, with numerous barriers, Central Government’s phenomenal particularly in the areas of contextual thrust in building a strong ecosystem conversion and content monetizing: of Indian Language Internet is evident Natural Language Processing (NLP) from a number of initiatives taken in this direction. Right from mandating Indic- Natural Language Processing (NLP), language support for mobile devices to powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and supporting multiple Indian languages in Machine Learning (ML) is instrumental key mobile platforms such as UMANG in proliferation of local languages online. (Unified Mobile Application for New-Age However, current methods for NLP are Governance) and BHIM (Bharat Interface largely about computational statistics that FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter for Money), the government has taken With an estimated 234 million users, Indian several encouraging steps to promote language internet users have already vernacular online content in the country. outnumbered English language internet users (175 million) online[3]. Therefore, C-DAC (Centre for Development of digital content localization makes Advanced Computing) - the premier complete business sense for all players in R&D organization of the Ministry of the online business, right from platform Electronics and Information Technology creators, service providers, OEMs, to online (MeitY), has enabled Indian languages publishers. on Pagers, Set-Top-Boxes, Dot Matrix Printers, Line Printers, Handheld devices, It is about time that we get over the Digital cameras, etc. It has also been age-old ‘chicken or egg’ conundrum working on creating language corpora, of who should start first, and craft a dictionaries and tools. MeitY has also sustainable inclusive ecosystem model that taken enormous efforts to include India’s enables creation, contextual conversion, 22 constitutionally-recognized languages discoverability, consumption as well as in the Unicode Standard. monetization of Indian language content online. Every digital content ecosystem Further, NITI Aayog in its ‘AI for All’ player must pass all litmus tests to be able program, articulated in its National AI to tap the tremendous potential unleashed Strategy, has committed to support by this burgeoning vernacular digital user AI-based developments in speech base. recognition, natural language processing and creation of varieties of new As Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications. technology evolves to go beyond text to include voice and speech synthesis, language localization needs will THE ROAD AHEAD: evolve to Speech-to-Text and will find MAINSTREAMING THE BIG wide adoption across sectors such as IDEA Healthcare, Education, Ecommerce, Retail, Transportation, Agriculture, Legal, Banking According to an analysis of India’s and Payments, Entertainment, among 2011 census data, released this year, others. This will further open up plethora over 19,500 languages or dialects are of opportunities for marketers, driving spoken in India as mother tongue. At ad revenues from both urban and rural the same time, 96.71 percent of India’s markets. population speak one of the 22 Scheduled Languages as their mother tongue. [2] While Technology giants such as Google,

FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon have made the first move, a vernacular startups too have made significant advances by building localized apps and services from the ground rather than adding language support as an afterthought. Success for these startups will largely depend on adopting different revenue models including in-app payments/gifts, and not restricting themselves to just advertisement revenues.

Going forward, Industry-Academia collaboration will prove to be a real game- changer, leading to a true synergy between Technology and Liberal Arts for problem solving. At the same time, continuous policy push towards building capacity, enhancing last-mile connectivity, taking connections beyond Common Service Centers (CSCs) and relying increasingly on renewable sources of energy to power homes through the light of education, self- development and learning, will allow India to unlock the full potential of a true Digital Bharat. As we celebrate 150 years of the birth of the Father of the Nation, India must continue with its relentless efforts towards true inclusive development by becoming digitally inclusive.

1. Source: Telecom Subscription Data as on August 31, 2018, TRAI 2. Source: http://censusindia.gov. in/2011Census/C-16_25062018_NEW.pdf 3. Source: Google – KPMG report “Indian Languages – Defining India’s Internet”

FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter OVERCOMING NON-INDIC FRIENDLY UI/UX WITH VOICE TECHNOLOGY

by Arvind Pani, Co Founder & CEO of Reverie Language Technologies

Digital platforms - both websites and This creates issues for Indian language apps - have generally been designed with users. Traditional UI/UX principles are a set of best practices in mind, ones which based on what works for mature English have been honed and refined through trial language users, users who have been and error over the years. Internet users, in using digital platforms for years. turn, have been exposed to these styles While the importance of localization is of UI/UX and have grown accustomed to increasingly being realized, it is often them to the point that these users find confined to content conversion alone. them intuitive to use. These principles When it comes to interfaces, this means were generally designed with mature that the interface language is translated, internet users in mind, users who were but the process often ends with that. This primarily English speakers. stems from a misunderstanding of why However, the growth of the Indian internet localization is important. True language has introduced the internet to hundreds experience, or user experience with end- of millions of new users. 90% of new users to-end localization, is generally not given over the next 2 years will use the internet enough importance. For example, even in their own language. if an e-commerce platform’s interface FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter is localized, its checkout page might not wide range of tasks that would otherwise be. This breaks the localization flow at its be confusing for them to execute. Indic most critical step, conversion. language voice powered chatbots for example, can walk a user through an entire Localization needs to be realized for what flow, asking them for their requirements it is - a process that involves making a and carrying out the desired action for platform intuitive for users of a certain them. cultural background. While a user’s background dictates the language they’re Taking the voice path means that user more comfortable with, it also dictates friction when it comes to unintuitive UI/UX other things, like user behaviour. Most is minimalized. Voice solutions can usher Indian language users, both current and in a new era of user convenience for the future, are new to the internet. This is a Indian internet, where users can interact critical aspect of their user background. with platforms through conversations. Actual active usage of these platforms will Since these users are new to the internet, help these users gain an understanding of they need to be walked through these UI/UX norms, while Indian user centric UI/ platforms. In other words, onboarding UX can be developed in parallel. users needs to go hand in hand with user education. All in all, voice solutions can be a powerful tool in breaking barriers to using digital Voice technology can help platforms platforms, for hundreds of millions of eliminate these barriers for Indian Indian language internet users, and can language internet users. Solutions that prove key in enabling digital usage for speak directly to users, in their own these users. language, can help these users carry out a

FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONALISATION AND LOCALISATION by Dhanashri Patil, Founder at Morai Solutions

“If you talk to a man in a language he for user comfort. understands, that goes to his head. If you With regard to providing digital content talk to him in his language, that goes to in local languages in India, we are a bit his heart - Nelson Mandela” late in the game. Even today, only a few India has 22 official languages, yet players provide localized content. But only English (which 80% of the Indian some organizations are realizing the population are not fluent in), dominates economic benefits of localizing content as the Indian online space. Users are they eye markets in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. expected to learn English to use digital Amazon recently launched ​a Hindi version platforms, instead of providing content in of it’s offerings.​ a language they are comfortable in. From If you are associated with building the deep technical discussions in Tamil software or digital content, here is what in a software company in Chennai to the you can proactively do to ensure that Microwave with all knobs in Finnish in your content breaks the language barrier. Finland, I have experienced and realized Ensure that the software is designed with the immense benefits of localizing content FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter internationalisation (i18n) and localisation l10n ​is the actual customization of the (l10n) support upfront. i18n software for a specific language target audience via translation. This task is mainly performed by language experts So what exactly is i18n and and translators. l10n? The following figure based on a chart i18n is a numeronym that stands for from the ​LISA website, depicts the internationalisation. The number 18 denotes the number of letters between the first (‘i’) and last letter (‘n’). l10n is also a numeronym that stands for localisation, the number 10 denotes the number of letters between the first (‘l’) and last letter (‘n’).

Here is a rough analogy from a layman’s perspective. A cake in a bakery with the top part empty, without pre-defining the occasion(wedding or birthday or anniversary) or the name of the customer is akin to i18n design. In software, this is similar to not pre-defining the language as ‘English only’. The piping on the cake can difference between the internationalisation include the name and occasion, based on and localisation process a little more the customer choice. This customisation clearly. The ​W3C website​ provides more is similar to localisation, which enables clarity into the differences, as well as users to pick and choose their language of provides technical guidance on different choice. steps to design internationalized software. If you want to increase the scope of your Here is the definition from a software and reach a wider audience, then internationalisation(i18n) and technical perspective. localisation(l10n) are the way to go ahead. i18n ​is the process of designing and developing software in such a way that it can be translated or localized easily for any other language. This task is mainly performed by Software Developers.

FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter MAKING INDIA, INDIC FIRST by Sachin Gupta, Director – Sales & Business Development, KeyPoint Technologies Private Limited

Thanks to the availability of low-priced language support. If a brand wants to smartphones, cheaper internet plans penetrate the real India, the only way to and new internet users, Indian Internet drive successful engagement is- if they traffic has been growing at the fastest localize their content according to popular pace globally. With over 500 million language sentiments. Online transactions, internet users, India is all set to see further news, digital ads and ecommerce- all acceleration in years to come. India also can see 100% better engagements and returns with the integration of local- ranks among top 5 countries with the language device support and localization highest number of Indic languages. Indian of content. language users already far exceed the number of English language users in the Indic language is going to be the key country. Even though the figures indicate driver to accelerate internet penetration a positive graph, the internet penetration and encourage the large chunk of native has still not reached half its potential in language users to come online, engage India. and stay connected. This can be driven by- localized app and web content, Over 60% of Indian population belong to multilingual keyboards and chatbots, or tier 2/3 cities or are from the rural areas software localization. This phenomenon who prefer end to end Indic language has forced the international brands to support on their mobile devices. Sadly, consider the multilingual angle for Indian a lot of smartphones and most online market. Any platform that enable users platforms do not have end to end Indic to interact in their preferred language is going to be a hit. FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter INDIC CHAAT

by Dr. Sunetra Sen Narayan, by Dr. Shalini Narayanan,

Associate Professor, Indian institute Independent Communications of Mass Communication, New . Consultant

Walking along the sangam* at Allahabad use of technology and social media in the (now Prayagraj) two months before the Hindi heartland. From just a few years ago big congregation of Kumbh** (previously when it was perceived as an elitist tool, the Ardh Kumbh) 2019, we were met with a mobile revolution has managed to bring it bizarre sight – a sadhu (holy man) with to the mass level where you can find it not rudraksh*** on his arms and neck, ash on only in the hands of children, but beggars a forehead adorned with matted locks, and mendicants too. In fact, as Dr. Anand who kept trailing us as we walked around. Pradhan says in his analysis on new media We were a group of four and like other in north India (India Connected: New trigger-happy tourists, busy clicking Media ke Prabhavon ki Sameeksha, SAGE, all sights which would populate our 2019), projections show that by 2021, Instagram feeds. The sadhu finally came the number of internet users in Hindi will up to us and asked- “Photo?” And then it outstrip those using the internet in English, dawned on us that what he was offering to cross the 200 million mark, given that to us was the opportunity to click a the annual rate of growth for Hindi internet picture with him for our social media and on that pretext, give him some offering * Confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical (read money) or dakshina! Saraswati rivers ** Holy gathering that takes places every 6 years This brought home to us the widespread *** Holy beads FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter users is 38%! The internet adoption level is Studies also show that a third of Indic the highest among Tamil users, followed by language users are likely to exclusively Hindi users. Quoting a report by KPMG and access online government services using Google in India, 2016, Dr. Pradhan goes their regional languages. on to say that the profile of internet users So, what can we expect in the 2020s is likely to look much different by 2021 as far as internet users in India are with language users displacing English concerned? A business in India would as the most widely used language on the probably be looking to create online internet. This growth will largely coincide adverts more in regional, local and even with more internet users coming from rural hyper-local languages/dialects. A politician areas, rather than urban ones. would send out online messages to her In the next three years that is by 2021, constituency in Indic languages, rather internet users being mostly non- than in English. Governments would have English speaking, businesses are likely to ensure availability of all services and to take notice of that and have more interfaces online in regional languages. advertisements in Indian languages. And the primacy of Indic language users Literacy being a barrier, video online would be apparent to all who would consumption should be the top choice of want to be part of this cross-cultural, Indic language users, with chat platforms cross-country chaat*^ comprising various becoming the entry point for new internet ingredients like languages and dialects, users, as has been indicated by reports. sweetened with regional sensibilities. The Indian language users are also going to bonus? A greater sensitivity to cultural and take to e-tailing, with numbers accessing regional nuances than ever before! e-commerce sites going up quadruple by that time to touch 165 million users. *^Spicy mixture served as snacks

FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter INDIC INTERNET AND PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN by Dr. Shagun Sinha PhD Researcher, Sanskrit NLP (Natural Language Processing), School of Sanskrit and Indic Studies

As the age of technology advances, percent of the AI workforce is women.”3 various preparations and efforts are being As surprising as it may sound, AI has had put to making the internet the ‘accessible- a low percentage of women working as to-all’ space. To say the internet has its pioneers or even as simple workers. become a necessity for most of us would This has been said to be a grave concern not be an understatement. More so, that the AI that would be produced in the internet availability totally in one’s native future would be gender-biased owing to language is long wished dream that awaits the lack of the other point of view. coming true. A similar case can be presented for With various MT tools and indic keyboards, Indic Internet as well. Women, too, the development of such a platform are participants in the Indic Internet has already been initiated. However, the world. With the access of smartphones backend of such a development must having reached approximately 300 introspect to ensure it does not become ‘gender- specific’. In a report of a study conducted by the World Economic Forum 3 https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/ concerns-over-huge-gender-gap-in-artificial-intelligence- and LinkedIn, it has been found that “22 workforce-1.3740900 FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter million people with around 650 million as well as home makers should be called people using mobile phones in India,4 it to participate so as to ensure a holistic would be interesting to see how many overview of the current situation and of these owners are women with what prospective expectations. Google’s requirements. This may move industry to Internet Saathi5 that helps rural women focus research on content that has never gain access to internet is another good been produced in the internet sphere in step to be emulated. the regional languages. A woman might have some search queries that her male Indic Internet, thus, must be a democratic counterparts may never be able to think platform that ensures not just the of and thus, never be able to incorporate development of content for users across in the overall scheme of Indic internet genders and age groups but also the development. Inclusion is thus the key. participation of all its stakeholders in active and impressive numbers. Initiatives like ​Bhashantara​, which was recently organized by FICCI are required 4 Counterpoint Research accessed on https://telecom. in more numbers. Women in the industry economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india-to-have- 530mn-smartphone-users-in-2018-study/61097817 5 https://www.google.com/about/values-in-action internet-saathi/

FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter SHOWCASE NEWS *FICCI-ILIA has aggregated this news from third party websites

Bangla, Tamil, Punjabi, Odia, Telugu, , , Marathi and Gujarati. The keyboards are made available to the Windows Insider Program members, along with the Indic Traditional INSCRIPT keyboards that are already available with Windows. These keyboards will also be added to Windows 10 later. Indian Voice Assistant Developed by IIT Patna Will The new Indic keyboards will allow the regional language users to type using their Speak 18 Languages existing QWERTY keypads, which will, in NITI Aayog is collaborating with several turn, transliterate the words and suggest researchers and developers at IIT Patna the closest Indic text options – from which and 14 other institutions to create a one can choose. voice assistant capable of addressing queries in as many as 18 languages. This voice assistant will have the required knowledge to respond to queries related to agriculture, health, education, and other professional skills.

Besides giving information about professional ventures and skills, the virtual assistant will be capable of playing music, creating and updating checklists, Forget qwerty, you can now streaming media and podcasts, reading type your mother tongue out news, playing audiobooks and so on, on this specially designed just like Google Assistant and Alexa. keyboard for Indic languages

Ka-Naada Phonetics Private Limited, in Bengaluru founded by Guru Prasad in October 2017 have come out with a keyboard that can be applied to any language based on the Brahmi script. They formed nine groups for the keyboard and developed it based on Unicode. Microsoft rolls out 10 new The keyboard can be used to type any Indic language keyboards for Indic language. The format is very simple regional Internet users - the main button on the keyboard allows Microsoft rolled out Indic Phonetic you to choose your mother tongue. The keyboards in 10 languages namely, Hindi, same keyboard, at the press of a button,

FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter can be converted to any Indic language of the user’s choice.

Ka-Naada’s keyboard is available in 16 languages and can also be used in other countries such as Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Nepal for their local dialects as these languages too are rooted in Brahmi. Amazon Prime Video introduces Tamil & Telugu user interfaces

Amazon Prime Video has introduced Tamil and Telugu user interface, including navigation, browsing, and customer support, in a bid to offer more localized experience to its customers.

News18 launches news app in A large selection of Prime Video’s content 11 Indian languages will also feature show descriptions and subtitles in these languages, the News18 has launched its flagship news company said in a statement. This move app in 11 languages. The News18 app will comes on the heels of the service adding provide news and live TV in English, Hindi, Hindi interface last month. Amazon said Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Tamil, these interfaces will be available on Malayalam, Telugu, Punjabi and . Prime Video’s website, mobile apps and supported connected devices like Smart TVs, latest Apple devices, gaming consoles such as Xbox One and PS3, PS4.

FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter MEMBERS CORNER “Rodali Assamese Keyboard” for Android Devices

Society for Language Technology their Indic Input Method apps. However, Development, Assam (SLTD, Assam) has the updated version of “Rodali Assamese recently released an updated version Keyboard” developed by native persons of its popular keyboard app “Rodali having experience in writing Assamese for Assamese Keyboard” for helping the users many years provides some unique features to write Assamese on Android devices like phonetic typing, autosuggestion for in an easy and efficient way. When first conjunct letters etc. Till date more than 1, released in 2014, “Rodali” was the first 40,000 users have downloaded “Rodali of its kind app for Android devices to Assamese Keyboard” for Android devices write Assamese. Later, a few companies from the playstore. Average rating of this including Google included Assamese in app is 4.5 till now.

Rajasthan State’s New Email Project Brings Millions of Hindi Speakers Online

The former Rajasthan Chief Minister’s to provide critical information and administration worked with the services. Since its launch in December Rajasthan-based firm Xgenplus and 2017, more than four million people deployed its email solution RajMail. have signed up for email accounts via Residents could sign up and access RajMail. In recognition of her vision the web-based email service and for a linguistically diverse Internet, the smartphone app to get their free email ICANN-backed Universal Acceptance account in the language of their choice. Steering Group (UASG) presented the Chief Minister with a Universal This initiative gives the government Acceptance Thought Leader Award. of Rajasthan a more effective way to engage with its citizens directly, and

an Indic social media which connects us globally and still is rooted locally

About application/social media: neighbourhood level. Offline it called the It’s a distributed and decentralized Resilience Center. It has been developed platform (online interface/nexus of by two indigenous professors (Dr. Seema academia-community-industry-policy) Sharma and Arnab Bose, Founders – which offers a complete ecosystem/ Resilience Relations, a DIPP approved decision making tool at its smallest unit Start up under Start up India Mission) in of management i.e. at district/locality/ India based out of 10 years of rigorous

FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter ethnographic studies, research and • It helps in improving the overall quality of analysis. life of all local stakeholders

Each district/locality/neighbourhood has • Only trusted sources are allowed to pin two major sections, noticeboard & local notices in this section empowerment zone. The Local Empowerment Zone has flexible The Noticeboard feature of and area specific tabs on attributes is instrumental in creating an alternate relating to social (jobs for women, day paradigm in the flow of information – care, access to disabled people, financial inclusion, disaster risk mitigation) or • It allows free flow of correct information ecological resilience (water conservation, among stakeholders solar roofs, energy efficiency, green • It has been designed to have accountability housing, Resilience Atlas, creation of at its heart options for public built environment, leisure etc.). • There are inbuilt check and balance mechanisms to control negative social impact

Tele: +91-11-2375-3125 Email Id- [email protected]; [email protected] Address: FICCI-Indian Languages Internet Alliance Team, 4th Floor, Federation House, Tansen Marg, New Delhi - 110 001 Website: http://www.ficci-ilia.in/

FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter